Relief over hostage release; Gaza border set to open

Israel issues travel warning for citizens amid worldwide protests

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Security Council have released a joint statement advising citizens against travel to much of the Arab world, as well as other Muslim-majority countries such as Malaysia and Bangladesh.

“Israelis abroad are under threat” the statement said, adding that there had been a “significant increase in anti-Israel protests in the past few days in countries around the world.” It added that “hostility and violence have been displayed against Jewish and Israeli symbols.”

Travel alerts to Egypt, including Sinai, and Jordan were raised to level 4 — indicative of a “high threat level” — while Morocco’s threat level was raised to 3, warning against any “non-essential travel.” Citizens were told to avoid going to “any Middle Eastern or Arab countries” or “Muslim countries” including those in which no travel alerts had previously been issued, such as the Maldives.

“The rhetoric of global jihad has become more extreme, which is calling to harm Israelis and Jews around the world,” the statement said.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid cross Egyptian border

Aid convoy trucks make their way across the Rafah border from the Egyptian side today in North Sinai, Egypt. The aid is now being transferred to Palestinian trucks to make its way into Gaza.

Egypt hosts peace summit amid ‘differences’ between world leaders

World leaders have arrived in Cairo for a hastily-convened peace summit as fears spark over an encroaching ground invasion into Gaza by Israel and a broader regional war.

Attending the event are a number of key regional leaders, including Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres, EU council president Charles Michel, E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are also attending, as well as representatives from Germany, France, Russia, China and the U.K.

The absence of top Israeli or U.S. officials has limited expectations of the event, which is proceeding amidst “differences” amongst leaders over a common summit declaration and final resolution text, an E.U. source told Reuters.

Rafah border due to open, uncertain for how long, Embassy says

CAIRO — Two weeks into the war, the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt is expected to open to allow foreign nationals to leave, according to the U.S. Embassy.

The opening will raise hopes that humanitarian aid will be allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt as trucks sit waiting at the gate.

“We anticipate that many people would attempt to cross should the border open, and U.S. citizens attempting to enter Egypt should expect a potentially chaotic and disorderly environment on both sides of the crossing,” the embassy said.

There have been multiple attempts to open the border since the war began, but negotiations on aid and physical damage to the crossing from bombardment have caused delays.

Aid convoy of 20 trucks has crossed Egyptian border, gate still closed

At least 20 trucks of aid that have been waiting on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing finally made their way to the Palestinian side at around 10.30 a.m. local time (3.30 a.m. ET.).

None of the vehicles have yet officially entered Gaza, as the gate on the Palestinian side of the border has not yet opened. Aid is being offloaded from trucks that crossed from Egypt onto Palestinian trucks to be taken into Gaza, according to NBC News producers at the crossing.

Biden: Hamas attacked in part to derail potential Saudi-Israel agreement

President Joe Biden tonight suggested that one of the reasons why Hamas attacked Israel was to stop the country from normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia.

Speaking at a campaign fundraiser, Biden said Hamas may have attacked Israel “because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis.”

“Guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognize Israel,” Biden said, and “were about to recognize Israel.”

Read the full story here.

Fighter jets hit ‘a large number’ of targets overnight, IDF says

ASHDOD, Israel — The Israel Defense Forces said it’s fighter jets continued to strike “a large number of Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” overnight.

It said the targets included operational command centers, anti-tank missile launchers, and strategic Hamas infrastructure. Hamas anti-tank missile, sniper, and observation posts located in multi-story buildings were also hit, it said. NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify the information.

Shaking could be felt in Ashdod, some 20 miles away from the Gaza border, throughout the night and seemed to intensify after the release of two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Shoshana Raanan, were released by Hamas.

There were also multiple sirens warning of possible incoming air attacks in the area, including one that unfolded as many would have been sitting down for Friday night Sabbath dinner.

7 influential accounts are warping Israel-Hamas news on X, researchers find

A handful of influential but unreliable accounts, some of which have been promoted by Elon Musk, are dominating the flow of news on X around the Israel-Hamas war and easily outpacing established mainstream news outlets, according to research published Friday by the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public.

Researchers analyzed viral posts about the conflict during a three-day period starting from the beginning of the attack against Israel on Oct. 7. They concluded that the most popular posts about the crisis revealed how news on the platform is “faster, more disorienting, and potentially more shaped by Musk himself.”

The new work adds data to a swell of recent anecdotal accounts from researchers, academics and journalists who have noted a change for the worse in the way news and information moves and is incentivized on Twitter over the last year, especially since the start of the Israel-Hamas crisis. A separate analysis published Thursday by NewsGuard, a nonpartisan company that tracks false narratives online, found verified accounts were responsible for nearly three-fourths of the most viral misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war on Twitter. 

Read the full story here.

A Jewish-American woman from New York, Natalie Sanandaji, shares chilling details of her escape from the Hamas terrorist assault on an Israeli music festival on Oct. 7.

More than words: Anti-Israel protests get physical across Middle East

Protests against Israel and the United States intensified today as crowds skirmished with authorities.

The protests also simultaneously came in pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah form and erupted from Bagdad to Bahrain.

A big fear for supporters of a cease-fire and long-term peace is the specter of a second war front between Iran-backed, Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel, already focused on Hamas in Gaza.

Skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel have been taking place along Israel’s northern edge, and the country plans to evacuate 20,000 from the northern city of Qiryat Shemona.

Catch up with NBC News’ coverage of the Israel-Gaza war

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